KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – The leader of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), Dr. Godwin Friday, is promising public sector workers that if his party wins the November 27 general election, they will receive 50 per cent off the duty on a vehicle if they work in the public sector for 10 years or more.
“I don’t ask people about their affiliation, how they vote. I don’t even ask them now, in the current time, the most I might ask is if you’re registered, but I don’t even ask that,” he added.
But Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has dismissed such a policy, saying instead of having a vision, “instead of critiquing our policies, what the NDP has taken to doing is to try to kerfuffle people with gimmicks.
“Today, there are a few more gimmicks,” he said, referring to the other announcements made by Friday.
Friday, who has been representing the Northern Grenadines since 2001, is making his second bid to lead the NDP to victory after it was voted out of office in March that year, also announced two value added tax (VAT) free shopping days annually, a payout to parents on the birth of a child, and a concession on equipment valued at up to EC$20,000 (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents).
He said that if elected to office, he does not want everyone coming to him as Prime Minister, adding that he wants a public service in which public servants do their jobs.
“And they don’t have to look over their shoulder. All they have to say is, ‘Minister, this is what it says I’m supposed to do, and that’s what I did. If you don’t like that, go and take it up with the people who write this law, don’t come to me about it.’
“And they are protected. The Minister can’t say, ‘Well, look, I’ll send you to someplace else, ’ because they have to go through me first. I am not going to allow that to happen in government.
“Because when that happens, all of us suffer because the people are not efficient and not producing. They’re not doing the things that taxpayers are paying them to do because they feel that their hand is tied behind their backs. We have to get rid of that because we are a modern country. We aspire to be more than that, some people.
“But the point is that we are not going to get the best out of our public servants, and they are some of the best trained people, best educated people.”
He cited the Ministry of Agriculture, which has “some of the most highly-educated, skilled people, ready to work, who want to do something.
“And they’re just sitting around waiting for a minister every Monday morning to come and tell them they will be sending a container of something next week to someplace else, with no real strategy as to how.
“Say, ‘Listen, guys, this is how we’re going to revitalise agriculture. Advise me what the most effective way you think we can get there? We have set the policy. Tell me how we get there.’
“And no idea is off the table, because I’m open to that.”
But Gonsalves, who is seeking to lead his ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) into a historic sixth consecutive term in office, told supporters that the idea of two days a year as VAT-free days is another gimmick.
“They try that in Barbados. They stop it because it makes absolutely no sense,” Gonsalves said, adding that “then imagine this man (Friday) gets on a radio and proposes that to have babies, he goes give EC$500.
“Which world do you live in on Friday?. Imagine that he is insulting a woman to say Have a pickney, and I get $500. $500? $500, really? Is he serious?” Gonsalves said, asking Friday to state specifically whether the EC$500 was intended to encourage people to have children in light of the declining population.
But Friday doubled down on his proposal, saying, “I just want to make it clear, again, that this policy that we’ll introduce is that we will pay the government a bonus of $500 on the birth of a child in St Vincent and the Grenadines, that is to the parents of the child.
“And that is, call it the baby bonus. That is something that we will have in place, and families will be able to take advantage of that at that time when there are such, you know, additional costs and prices and so on.”
However, Gonsalves said the National Insurance Services (NIS), “once you are there, they give you a grant of $660,” adding that Friday is unaware of that.
Gonsalves also noted that the proposed 50 per cent reduction in the duty on vehicles will also apply to the police, nursing, health, and teaching services.
“Look at the rubbish,” he said, adding that there are over 4,000 people in the public sector with more than 10 years’ service.
“Now, let us assume that the average duty on a vehicle these days is about EC$35,000 and you give half of that as a relief, that’s EC$17,500,” Gonsalves said, adding that it would amount to around EC$76 million.
“But the question you have to ask, to show you all these gimmicks come and they don’t seek them out: so, somebody is in the service for 10 years, but they don’t have the level in the service, that that person is going to get the duty-free concession, but their boss can’t get it?
“And those who are civil servants will know the confusion, which you’re going to have.”
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